Top Prison movies (personal)
The top 5 are my top 5, but the rest could be put in any order.
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- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonA banker convicted of uxoricide forms a friendship over a quarter century with a hardened convict, while maintaining his innocence and trying to remain hopeful through simple compassion.My all-time favourite movie of any genre.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTom HanksMichael Clarke DuncanDavid MorseA tale set on death row, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the lead guard, Paul Edgecombe, recognizes John's gift, he tries to help stave off the condemned man's execution.My second all-time favourite movie of any genre.
- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsSteve McQueenDustin HoffmanVictor JoryA French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.Steve McQueen is in it, so it's got to be a good one don't you think? Hollywoodised true story.
- DirectorStuart RosenbergStarsPaul NewmanGeorge KennedyStrother MartinA laid-back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.Paul Newman... need I say more?
- DirectorTed DemmeStarsEddie MurphyMartin LawrenceObba BabatundéIn 1932, two strangers are wrongfully convicted and develop a strong friendship in prison that lasts them through the 20th century.Funny and sad too.
- DirectorDick ClementStarsRonnie BarkerRichard BeckinsaleFulton MackayFletcher is ordered to arrange a prisoner vs celebrity football game, unaware it's a diversion for an escape. Fletcher and cellmate Lennie accidentally discover the plan and must break back into prison to avoid punishment.OK, so this is a strange one to put here BUT I LOVE IT.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsBurt LancasterKarl MaldenThelma RitterA surly convicted murderer held in permanent isolation redeems himself when he becomes a renowned bird expert.Hollywoodisation of a true story.
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsBurt ReynoldsEddie AlbertEd LauterA sadistic warden asks a former pro quarterback, now serving time in his prison, to put together a team of inmates to take on (and get pummeled by) the guards.
- DirectorPeter SegalStarsAdam SandlerBurt ReynoldsChris RockPrison inmates form a football team to challenge the prison guards.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsBrad DavisIrene MiracleBo HopkinsBilly Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
- DirectorStuart RosenbergStarsRobert RedfordYaphet KottoMorgan FreemanThe new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
- DirectorMartin CampbellStarsRay LiottaLance HenriksenStuart WilsonA soldier convicted for murdering his commanding officer is dumped and left to die on a prison island inhabited by two camps of convicts.
- DirectorStephen WallaceStarsBryan BrownMax PhippsDennis MillerWhen a repeat offender returns to a prison after exposing abuses committed by its guards to the press, tensions boil between inmates and staff, culminating in a bloody riot.
- DirectorTom CleggStarsRoger DaltreyAdam FaithCheryl CampbellJohn McVicar was a notorious London criminal known as "Public Enemy No. 1" for armed bank robberies. He was captured and imprisoned in a high security facility, but continued attempting escapes.
- DirectorAlan ClarkeStarsRay WinstoneMick FordJulian FirthAn uncompromising story of life in a British juvenile offender institution in the '70s.
- DirectorJohn FlynnStarsSylvester StalloneDonald SutherlandJohn AmosWith only six months left of his sentence, inmate Frank Leone is transferred from a minimum security prison to a maximum security prison by a vindictive warden.